1.Principle of Biochemistry by Voet and Voet
2.NMR spectroscopy by T Clarridge
3.Transmission Electron Microscopy by David B. Williams, C. Barry Carter
4.CryoEM Methods and Protocols by Tamir Gonen, Brent L. Nannenga
5.Research articles and lectures notes

M.Pharm./ B.Pharm., B.Tech./M.Tech. in Biotechnology or Bioinformatics, R&D Scientists/Professionals in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries, Clinical Researchers, Bioprocess Development Engineers, and AI/ ML Engineers in Drug Discovery Postgraduate (M.Sc./M.Tech./Ph.D. ) and/or Advanced Undergraduate.

Pre-requisites

Basic knowledge of Chemistry & Physics (Class 12 Standard)

Any state and central universities, National Institutes, and any pharmaceutical companies and R&D sections which are involved in drug discoveries.

The course covers fundamentals of protein, DNA, RNA structures; methods in structural biology, like AI-based structure prediction tools, experimental methods, like X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, NMR; computational tools for molecular modeling and docking; principles of protein-ligand and protein-inhibitor interactions and biophysical approaches to understand these interactions; applications of structure-based approaches in modern drug discovery and vaccine development.

Module 1: Introduction to protein chemistry, protein-ligand interactions, DNA/RNA ligand interactions

Week 01: Introduction to protein, DNA, RNA structures.

Week 02: Introduction to protein, DNA, RNA structures and various interactions (covalent/ non-covalent interactions).

Week 03: Various protein purification techniques (Chromatography techniques). In vitro RNA transcription and purification techniques.

Week 04: Various biochemical and biophysical characterization of ligand/inhibitor proteins interactions and Proteomics (Mass Spectrometry, ITC, MST, SPR).

Module 2: Introduction to Structural Biology

Week 05: Structure–function relationship in biomolecules and 3D structure of Protein DNA, RNA. AI-driven drug discovery.

Week 06: Drug discovery pipeline: target identification to lead optimization. Structure-based vs ligand-based drug design.

Week 07: Binding thermodynamics and kinetics (Kd, IC50) and case studies HIV inhibitors or vaccine, kinase inhibitors, COVID-19 vaccine, peptide-based drug development

Module 03: Computational Structural Biology and Experimental Methods in Structural Biology

Week 08: X-ray crystallography and NMR principles, data collection, phasing, refinement.

Week 09: Cryo-EM: sample preparation, image processing, structure determination and other techniques like SAXS, mass spectrometry, CD spectroscopy

Week 10: Molecular modelling and structure prediction (homology modelling, AlphaFold), Protein–ligand docking: scoring functions, virtual screening. Software: AutoDock, GROMACS, PyMOL, Chimera.

Week 11: Structure-guided vaccine design, Cryo-EM in drug discovery, Integrative structural biology approaches.

Week 12: Ethical and regulatory aspects of drug discovery and case studies.